Poppy and Mark’s colourful meadow festival wedding in Wales is not only full of inspiration and pretty details, but it just oozes love and fun. It’s a beautiful example of a British summer wedding at it’s best, with hay bale seating, sunflower yellow bridesmaid dresses, and romantic meadow photos.

“We met our wonderful photographers, Michael and Andrea of Bohemian Weddings, at a friend’s wedding the previous year (Lizzy and Graeme had found them by contacting The Natural Wedding Company after being let down last minute).

We wanted to capture the feel of the day rather than have hours of posed photographs, and as we’d seen them previously we knew they would be perfect. It felt like having friends take our photos rather than official photographers, and their friendliness and ease spread to all the guests throughout the day.”

Over to Poppy to tell us more about their colourful meadow festival wedding…

Colourful meadow festival wedding

“We knew we wanted a really relaxed wedding with a festival feel and where our friends and family could stay over and enjoy the whole weekend. Festivals have played an important part in my life, having grown up going to festivals with my family, and then spending many Glastonbury festivals with Mark. This formed the feel for the whole day.

We wanted an outdoor ceremony if possible, and instead of having a set colour theme we wanted lots of bright colours for the decorations and flowers. We used Pinterest to get lots of inspiration for our day. I also loved reading about people’s real weddings on blogs and in magazines.”

The wedding morning

“The first thing we both did on the morning of the wedding was check the weather! We became completely obsessed with the weather forecast leading up to the day because we were having the ceremony outside and there was no plan B! Luckily, it was the most perfect day with beaming, warm sunshine. Had it rained, we would have dealt with it and donned our wellies, but the weather couldn’t have been better.

We stayed separately the night before the wedding, which was strange but made the excitement of seeing each other at the ceremony even stronger. Mark had a fairly relaxed morning at a hotel with his best men and Dad. I was staying at the farm so it was very busy with people arriving and coming in and out of the barn for various things.

Having said that, I did get some lovely, calm moments with the bridal party and one that really sticks in my mind is when they revealed a gift box from Mark. We all cried and giggled together as I opened the gifts. It was a really special moment.”

A vintage inspired wedding dress

“For my dress I wanted something with a vintage feel and something that would be comfortable for the outdoor ceremony and for the rest of the day. I tried on lots of dresses in bridal boutiques but couldn’t find one that I loved. I kept seeing a dress that I liked from Phase Eight in wedding magazines, and funnily enough my sister also pointed it out to me.

I ordered the dress into the shop in Liverpool and loved it when I went to try it on. It needed altering, and as it was fully beaded I wanted to make sure I found a good seamstress to do this. Kindly, an assistant in a bridal boutique recommended Jane Flanagan in Bolton who did a wonderful job of the alterations.

For my jewellery, I kept it quite simple. I wore a bracelet Mark bought me for my 30th birthday and some Pandora earrings he bought me in the lead up to the wedding. I pinned a blue butterfly broach that had been my Grandmother’s to the inside of my dress for my something blue, and also so I felt like she was part of the day. My brother’s girlfriend did a great job on my hair and it matched the style I was going for perfectly.”

The groom’s outfit

“Mark arrived at the farm about an hour before the ceremony and got to see everyone at the campsite who had stayed the night before. There are some lovely photos of this with people getting ready and fixing each other’s outfits etc.

It was impossible for Mark to pick one best man as he’s grown up with three best mates and so he had them all. Each of them had a different role. Tom was responsible for the rings and part of the ceremony, Jay delivered the speech and Dash provided music for the day and dj’d in the evening (before Mark unexpectedly took over the decks for the last half an hour!).

Mark got his suit from Moss Bros. He chose a slim fitting blue suit with a tweed waistcoat. I bought him some cufflinks made out of old watch mechanisms and had them engraved with the wedding date and our initials. These were given to him on the morning of the wedding as a surprise. He didn’t want all the groom’s party in matching suits so they all wore matching waistcoats and chose their own suits.”

Sunflower yellow maxi skirts for the bridesmaids

“My bridesmaids were my sister, Mark’s sister and two of my nieces. My two youngest nieces were flower girls. As the bridesmaids are all very different, we decided it didn’t matter if they wore different things. We found some lovely yellow maxi skirts from River Island and then they each chose a white top to go with them. Their outfits were perfect for the day and they all looked beautiful. We all wore white flowers in our hair and so did my Mum.

We wanted the wedding décor to be bright, colourful and fun. I knew I wanted relaxed flowers in a range of colours. My sister lives above a florist and we asked her to make the bouquets, which were beautiful. She also provided the flowers for the marquee and wedding arch that my Mum and Aunty put together perfectly. It meant so much to have my Mum and Aunty do the flowers and they got lots of wonderful compliments.”

Pre-ceremony wedding nerves

“About half an hour before the ceremony, my nerves kicked in and I started to feel very overwhelmed, excited and emotional. I had to hold my Dad’s hand to keep me calm! It was probably at this time that Mark began to feel nervous too, and while he didn’t hold onto his best man’s hand, he did look to him to calm his nerves.

The minute we saw each other at either end of our hay bale aisle, nerves were replaced with excitement and happiness and we couldn’t stop smiling. This feeling stayed with us for the entire day.”

An outdoor non-religious wedding ceremony

“Neither of us are religious so we knew we didn’t want a religious ceremony. We also knew we wanted the ceremony to take place at the wedding venue, but as it doesn’t have a license to get officially married there, we had to do the official bit a few days later.

We looked online for a celebrant to carry out a non-religious ceremony at the farm, and found Jenny from Manchester Ceremonies. We met up and she was perfect for our day. She wrote a beautiful, personal and heartfelt ceremony that matched exactly what we were looking for.

Following the ceremony, so many people commented on how moving and lovely it had been. Jenny made us and the guests feel incredibly relaxed and I’d highly recommend her to anyone wanting to have a similar ceremony.”

Wedding readings in a meadow

“We had two readings during the ceremony. My Mum read a poem called I Will Be Here and a close friend of ours Julie read an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The ceremony was perfect in every way. The guests sat on hay bales in the glorious sunshine, looking out to the Welsh hills that were framed beautifully by the wedding arch, and although it took place outside it felt incredibly intimate and personal.”

Outdoor drinks reception and BBQ buffet

“Following the ceremony, we had an outdoor drinks reception before heading into the marquee for the moving, funny and at times slightly embarrassing speeches delivered by my Dad, Mark and the best man Jay. The speeches were followed by the food, which was provided by Ffres Catering. They prepared an amazing BBQ buffet outside on a huge Bavarian grill. The food was delicious and the guests loved it.”

A festival wedding venue with camping

“It was hard to find a venue for the wedding we wanted with outdoor space and the possibility for people to camp. After lots of trawling through the Internet we came across Clawdd Offa Farm in North Wales. The minute we visited we fell in love and knew it was the perfect venue for us. It offered everything we wanted: an amazing outdoor space with fantastic views; optional camping for the whole weekend including festihuts for guests; a lovely marquee by a small lake; and a beautiful converted barn for us and family to stay in.

Jo and Ben from Clawdd Offa were so accommodating from the start and we were able to decorate the marquee and surrounding outdoor space exactly how we wanted it. This meant we could really get the relaxed, festival feel we wanted.”

Colourful handmade marquee decorations

“We handmade all the decorations for the marquee including: three huge ribbon features that we hung above the tables; ribbons for the back of all the chairs; chalk boards to explain about the day and for the photo booth (for the photo booth, we collected bits of fancy dress and bought a Polaroid camera, which was much cheaper than hiring one); all the stationary for the day; and the seating plan and photo display using old pallets.

My very creative Dad also made an amazing wedding sign post and the wedding arch where we had the ceremony. We hired some festival flags to go down the path to the marquee and some bunting for the decking area.”

Wedding portraits in a meadow as the sun set

“One of our favourite moments of the day was when Michael and Andrea from Bohemian Weddings took the two of us off to a field to take some photographs as the sun was setting. It was one of those moments that people always tell you to have as a couple to take in the whole day and they made sure we got that. They made us feel so relaxed and we couldn’t have been happier with the final results of the photos that capture the day so beautifully.”

A chilled out evening reception

“After the food, people chilled out in the fields, on the decking or round the fire pit before the first dance and the arrival of the evening guests. Once the evening guests had arrived, the dance floor was pretty much full all night and by the end the marquee had descended into what looked like the dance tent as Glastonbury, which is exactly what we had wanted.”

A naked chocolate wedding cake covered in berries

“The wedding cake was made by the very talented, Gaynor from the Liverpool Cake Company. We wanted a ‘naked’ cake to continue with the relaxed theme. The four tiers were gin and orange, salted caramel, white chocolate and raspberry and milk chocolate. Two very trustworthy friends kindly transported the cake from Liverpool and put it together on the morning of the wedding.”

Wedding advice for other couples

“For those planning a wedding, our advice would be to make the day yours. Ours was exactly how we wanted it to be and suited us both perfectly. When planning, think about what matters to you both and keep that vision in mind. If possible, make as much as you can for your day. We saved a lot of money by making things and it made everything feel more personal. Although, you have to be very organised and do lots of planning ahead!

Another huge piece of advice is to not get tangled up by who you do and don’t invite. You will never please everyone, but when the day comes the most important people will be there. It’s totally overwhelming on the day to be surrounded by your closest family, best friends and all the people you love. Enjoy every minute of it, relax and realise that all those little things you were worrying about no longer matter as you’re having the best day of your life and marrying the person you love unconditionally.”

Comments

Lesley on 14. April, 2017

This wedding looked to be so perfect, even the weather shone for this couple. The photos are wonderful and really give one the essence of the day, great joy and happiness, informality and such great love surrounding Poppy and Mark. My granddaughter is getting married this year and is having a very similar outdoor wedding which is in the USA. I am really looking forward to it as it will be very similar to Poppy and Mark’s wedding and will be a very relaxed, informal, happy and joyous occasion.